Health to my what? … You should give me a cookie!

Expectation and transfer of cultural daily language in Turkish Learners of English By chris hughes

A study of cultural transfer of L1 into L2.

How are students of different levels responding to common situations in English?

Are Ss aware of the appropriateness of their response to a given situation.

Are they making direct cultural or linguistic transfer from L1?

Are they aware of the differences?

Are L1 and L2Cultural habits the same?

Observation: tr culture is full of habitual social formalities which are uttered far more frequently in some cases than in English language culture almost to the point that it is a conditioned response

TR responses are almost standardized; and easily predictable because they rarely change.

Expectation

... I didn't really know what to expect from the study. Would it lead to black and white results?... do some situations cause confusion across all levels?

Method

Simple survey single sentence response to a described situation in a L2 settingSs surveyed were ~40 A2 B1 and C1 students

Survey consisted of 7 situations explained in EN and TR

So let's cut to the chase

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

Situation 1

You have been invited for dinner by your friends family. The food was delicious. What would you say to the cook in this situation?

Arkadaşınızın ailesi tarafından yemeğe çağrıldın. Yemek lezzetliydi. Yemeği pişren kişiye ne dersin?

C B A

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

Situation 2

You have prepared food for your friends/guests. What would you say to them?

arakdaşlarının veya misafirlerin için yemek hazırladın. Onlara servis yaparken ne dersin?

C B A

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

Situation 3

You visit a colleague in his office. He is drinking coffee and eating some cookies. What would you say to him?

Bir iş arkadaşını ofisinde ziyaret ediyorsun. Kahve içip, pasta yiyor. Ona ne dersin?

C B A

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

Situation 4

You go into a shop to buy something, the shopkeeper is eating lunch. What would you say to him?

Alışveriş yapmak içinmağazaya girdin. Mağazadaki kişi bir şeyler atıştırıyor. Ona ne dersin?

C B A

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

Situation 5

You see a gardener digging in the garden of your apartment building. What would you say to him?

Binaya girerken apartmanın bahçesinde çalışan bir bahçıvan gördün. Yanından geçereken ona ne dersin?

C B A

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

C B A

Situation 6

You visit your colleague in his office. He is very busy. What would you say to him?

Bir iş arkadaşını ofisinde ziyaret ediyorsun. Çok meşgul. Ona ne dersin?

TR Cult

Dont Know

Appropriate

odd

inapp rude

C B A

Situation 7

You see an electrician repairing the main circuit box in your building. What would you say to him?Binada elektrik sigortasını tamir eden bir elektrikçi gördün. Yanından geçerken ona ne dersin?

Bottoms up

Please do it everybody. This goods for us.

Ooo quickly quickly

You must like this there isn't any choice

You('d) better say nice words

You should go to a doctor because you put on weight

More power to you

Excuse me look at me

Be careful, you could die

Can you take care of me?

Hey, Businessman, are you busy?

What do the results show?

Some creative attempts at responding in their own way to these situations, sometimes resulting in odd, interesting or even rude sentences. Somewhat more prevalent in C level Ss. THIS IS A GOOD THING!!!!!!

Some direct L1 cultural translation to L2 often higher in lower levels but not always

Ok so what if anything should be done about this?